Here are 10 tips for building a revenue-generating mailing list for e-mail marketing.
As property buyers encounter more tools and avenues to get mortgage quotes, it's important to reinforce the value of doing business with your firm. One of the best ways to build a relationship with prospects and explain your value is by using e-mail marketing. As you experiment with e-mail marketing for your mortgage business, it's important to remember that your outreach can highlight great reasons to do business with your office, but that won't increase the flow of deals if your list of prospects is too small. Growing your list of prospect e-mail addresses is something you can do 365 days a year. It's easy, but it takes a little dedication.
The start of a great list is one that is filled with customers and prospects who have said "yes" to receiving information from you and who will be moved to action if the time and/or offer is right. The key to success is that your list of e-mail addresses needs to grow if you want your business to grow. Asking for an e-mail address at the end of your phone call is a great start and there are several other ways to gather new additions to your list. Follow these 10 tips and you'll soon find you have an e-mail list that helps win business.
1. Ask for e-mail addresses at the point of first contact. Tell prospects they will receive notification about new interest rates or debt instruments, exclusive e-mail-only specials and first notice of favorable rate changes by signing up for your mailing list, either online or in person.
2. Include real estate agents in your list. Often, buyers ask their real estate agent about recommended mortgage professionals. Keeping your name in front of Realtors can help increase leads and new business. As you collect these e-mail addresses, you can segment your list to send a different campaign to Realtors, since they have different needs than buyers.
3. Offer free information. You have a high level of expertise in your business or you wouldn't have started it. What you may not realize, though, is that by sharing a little bit of that knowledge for free you can entice customers and prospects to give you their e-mail information. For example, you can offer simple tips on best timing for refinancing, or a primer on points and how points impact monthly payments. And, all anyone needs to do to get that information is give you an e-mail address to send it to. Simple.
4. Conduct a poll or survey. Place a poll about something relevant to your business on your website, or use cards and a box in a store location. Offer a free gift or discount as a thank you for participating, which will be sent to the respondent's e-mail address.
5. Hold a contest. Similar to the survey, you can offer a prize (or series of prizes) to anyone who signs up for your mailing list. In an office, you can put up a fishbowl to collect business cards for a drawing for something of value, like a maid service visit to their new property the day after the closing.
6. Use social media to encourage sign-ups. If you already have Twitter followers or a Facebook fan page, ask your followers and fans to sign up for your e-mail alerts. Explain that the e-mails will include information and offers not available anywhere else.
7. Hand every customer a postcard. Customers may be squeezing in mortgage planning between other activities, and don't have time to sign up for an e-mail program on the spot. But they may if you hand them a prepaid postcard that they can fill out and mail later. If you also offer them the option of signing up online instead you'll greatly increase your chances of capturing their e-mail addresses.
8. Capture friends of friends. Every e-mail you send has the potential for a ripple effect, if you encourage the people who are already on your list to pass your e-mails along to their friends. You can ask people to do it out of the goodness of their hearts, or you can give them an incentive with the offer of a gift or other reward if the friend signs up and mentions them. It definitely helps to include great content in your email marketing that is worth passing along.
9. Incent your staff. If you have employees, give them reasons to collect e-mail addresses on your behalf. Offer a small reward for each name collected to be given out after the first e-mail is received to make sure they don't ask to be taken off the list right away. Or offer a larger cash reward or other prize for the person who provides the most verifiable e-mail addresses at the end of each month.
10. Get out and mingle. If there are events in town, such as "Your Town Days" or a chili cook-off or a classic cars weekend, sign up to exhibit and be a part of them. Join the Rotary Club or other organization and become an active participant. For business-to-business brokers and dealers, attend meetings of special interest groups or networking events where customers and prospects might be, get their business cards and ask if it's OK to e-mail information to them.
Those are just a few ideas to get you started. The key is to do something. Get your list-building mechanism going and you'll find you have lots of people to whom you can send your creative e-mails. It's an investment that will help boost revenue and allow you to communicate the value your business provides.
Wendy Lowe is director of product marketing for Campaigner, an e-mail marketing firm. She can be reached at
